HOLLYWOOD - Universal Pictures has tapped Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand) to direct a feature film based on the life of Playboy founder and Editor-in-Chief Hugh Hefner.
Written by Ratner and John Hoffman, the project is currently entitled Playboy.
Producer Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind, Inside Deep Throat) of Imagine Entertainment purchased the rights to Hefner's life story from the men's magazine pioneer several years ago, but only approved the project last week.
"Hef came from a puritanical upbringing and reinvented himself to be the godfather of the sexual revolution," Ratner told Daily Variety. "He also used his magazine to advocate civil rights and free speech, and put James Brown on his show 'Playboy After Dark' when they didn't put black performers on national television. He broke all kinds of taboos, especially in sexuality. I want to show it all, from the First Amendment struggles to his first orgy to the stroke in the 1980s that almost killed him."
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